The Betting and Gaming Council(BGC) announced record numbers of engagement during Safer Gambling Week last month. The standards body for the regulated UK betting and gaming industry revealed more than 80 million interactions were registered across X, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram platforms.
The number was a 40% increase on last year’s total, which represents a significant uptick. A number of well-known individuals and institutions threw the weight of their support behind the campaign, including Gambling Minister Baroness Twycross, Shadow DCMS Secretary Nigel Huddleston MP, and Shadow Gambling Minister Louie French MP. Football clubs such as Chelsea also got behind the message, posting the safer gambling message to 25 million followers.
Safer Gambling Week is an annual campaign to promote safer gambling across the UK and Ireland with the support of a wide range of partners, which includes operators, providers, and affiliates. It is designed to showcase the number of betting tools that individuals can utilize when betting to help them stay in control. These include deposit limits, loss limits, and the Take A Break function.
The use of safer gambling tools are expected to increase over the coming weeks as a result, in line with other years. According to BGC Chief Executive Grainne Hurst: “The growth in engagement shows our message is reaching more people than ever. In previous years, increases in online activity have translated into greater uptake of tools such as time-outs and deposit limits, and we expect to see the same trend again.”
She thanked operators and organizers for the event’s success, adding: “millions more people are now better informed about how to stay in control and enjoy betting safely. That is something our entire industry can take real pride in.”
AI gets runout in Safer Gambling Week
This year’s campaign saw the introduction of AI to the responsible gaming movement, with a series of initiatives announced by several gambling companies across Safer Gambling Week. Flutter Entertainment hosted webinars to discuss how best to harness data to protect customers while game developer Playtech discussed the positive ramifications of machine learning, which enables early detection by analysing behavioural patterns across millions of data points. According to Playtech, this practice “identifies risk weeks or months before harm occurs and allows for timely, personalised interventions that help players maintain control.”
Generative AI has long been earmarked as the difference-maker in taking responsible gaming initiatives to the next level. Industry insiders believe it will help refine early warning systems, create personalized warning messages, and even produce in-game pop-ups that can remind and educate players on the dangers of gambling.
In the summer of 2025, sports technology company Sportradar created Bettor Sense, the first AI-powered solution that detects early signs of gambling-related risk and enables personalized interventions. The likes of Brazil’s Betesporte and Underdog in the U.S. have since partnered with the tool. Bettor Sense uses a continuously learning AI system that evaluates every sports bettor or iGaming customer in real time, drawing on each user’s historical risk profile.
The surge in engagement comes as operators increasingly lean on technology, particularly AI tools, to demonstrate progress on harm reduction.
UK betting industry in the crosshairs of government
Safer Gambling Week came at a period of increased scrutiny on the betting industry in the UK after a damaging budget announcement by UK chancellor Rachel Reeves. Betting companies were hit by an increase in tax, with remote gaming duty, paid on online casino betting, rising from 21 to 40% from April 2026.
The UK gambling sector had made an extra £1billion from punters in the latest 12-month reporting period, with revenue up to £12.6billion from 11.5billion the year previous. Iain Duncan Smith, chair of a cross-parliamentary group examining gambling harm, said at the time: “Uniquely, gambling companies make their profits through highly addictive products, often from our most deprived communities. It is abundantly clear that more addictive forms of gambling like online casinos and machines in adult gaming centres should be taxed at a higher level to pay for the many social ills that they cause.”
In the lead up to the budget, an exclusive poll for LabourList, conducted by Survation, found a mammoth 97% of Labour Party members would support the tax hike.
With so much social and political pressure to adhere to, leaders in the sector acknowledge the importance of promoting safer gambling tools wherever possible to combat the negative association with the industry and turn the tide of public opinion.
As operators brace for higher duties and a shifting regulatory landscape in future budgets, industry figures say the sector’s long-term standing will hinge on whether safer-gambling measures can meaningfully reduce harm and convince the public that reform is more than a budget-day talking point.
BGC’s Hurst said in an interview earlier in the year that showing the public real progress is a priority: ““I do think that there is still a slight misconception about the industry among the broader public, which is something that the BGC is working really hard to alter.”
References
- Betting And Gaming Council: https://bettingandgamingcouncil.com/news/safer-gambling-week-sets-new-benchmark-with-record-engagement
- iGaming Business: https://igamingbusiness.com/sustainable-gambling/responsible-gambling/uk-irish-operators-safer-gambling-week-2025/
- LabourList: https://labourlist.org/2025/11/budget-2025-gambling-banking-levies-survation-poll/
- https://igamingbusiness.com/legal-compliance/regulation/bgc-ceo-grainne-hurst-media-lies-uk-gambling/
